Spirit Reading

I was reading the discussion some people were having regarding reading to students and having them read. It reminds of an activity I have used with some effectiveness in my classroom call spirit reading. In a nutshell what happens is that when we are reading a piece of text together one person reads of a bit and then stops and whoever "feels the spirit to read" picks up where the last person left off. This takes a bit of getting used to and co-operation from all members of the class. In the beginning you will find that the same folks want to dominate and some will never read, but like with most classroom activities investing a bit of time brings out great results. Even my reluctant readers are taking turns, they don't read for as long as some others but they are now feeling confident enough to read aloud.